29 students involved in Skokie brawl given option of violence prevention seminar

Tribune illustration

Tribune illustration

Brian L. CoxSpecial to the Tribune

Twenty nine high school students cited for disorderly conduct in connection with a November brawl in Skokie that left one teenager with stab wounds and another charged with felony aggravated battery will have a choice between going to court or attending a violence prevention seminar, Skokie Police Chief Anthony Scarpelli said today.

Skokie police have issued disorderly conduct citations to the 29 youths, who were involved in a Nov. 9 fight at Emerson Park. A Niles North High School student was stabbed, authorities said.

Police said the citations are in addition to a felony aggravated battery charge against 17-year-old Tolgan Gundogdu of Chicago, who allegedly stabbed another youth during the fight. The Niles North student stabbed in the incident sustained non-life threatening injuries, and was released from the hospital after treatment, according to police.

Scarpelli said students from Niles North High School, Niles West High School and Mather High School in Chicago were in a McDonalds restaurant in Skokie on Nov. 9 when they decided to go to a park to fight in order to resolve a previous dispute. He said they saw police patrol cars near the first two parks they approached and settled on Emerson Park, where the brawl started.

"Obviously they weren't going to engage in a fight when the police were nearby," Scarpelli said.

The chief said the youths charged with disorderly conduct have been given the choice between attending a mid-December violence prevention seminar at the Skokie Police Department, or appearing in Cook County Court on Dec. 28. He noted that Gundogdu does not have a choice between court and the seminar, since he has been charged criminally. He also said that that the seminar is being offered on one day, so those who opt to attend will do so as a group.

"We don't want to see things like this happen again," Scarpelli said. "We thought this would be a good resolution for the participants charged with disorderly conduct."

"It would be an intervention strategy to avoid violence in the future," he added. "That essentially takes the place of going to court. Any of those who were cited who elect not to attend the seminar, would then be obligated to go through the court system, which is obviously their right."